Movement in Clarksville’s Colgate Factory Development

Architectural firm Kovert-Hawkins is drawing plans to develop the former Colgate factory in Clarksville, Indiana.

The Clarksville Redevelopment Commission approved a contract last week to redraw the development, but says it’s premature to confirm any tenants.

“There’s an awful lot of work to be done. We are just now scratching the surface,” said Rick Dickman, the director for redevelopment for Clarksville.

Kovert-Hawkins will be responsible for redrawing the factory to be used for multiple businesses, said Dickman. Since the factory was always a single unit, the city is taking precautions before it considers accepting any proposals, he said.

“We’re doing that in a process where we hopefully get all of our ducks in a row before we ever go into a meeting. I don’t want to waste the council’s time or the redevelopment commission’s time in having one meeting and then having another and another and another,” said Dickman.

The city must also consider whether the proposal is a smart investment, as the businesses are likely to ask for financial help from city and state governments, he said.

There are two healthcare-related businesses, which would take up around 200,000 square feet of space. But city officials must meet with outside-counsel before having a larger discussion about any proposals, said Dickman.

“They’re going to go through their financials to determine basically whether or not this is a suitable place for the town to place an investment. Everything we do at this point is to reduce the risk that we’ll make a mistake,” he said.

The city discussed building a medical facility as part of the Clark’s Landing project on the site earlier this year. Dickman could not say if this was related to those conversations directly, but he said this proposal encompasses the vision of bringing sustainable business to the area.